Ramblin' Rose Raleigh - TriathlonSprint

When you sign up for this tri, you rate your swim ability on a scale from 1 to 10, 10=you might win this race, 5=you can swim 225 yards without stopping, 1=you're walking and/or doggy paddling. Once you sign up you can't change your number. I rated myself a 6 and now I know I'm at least a 7, probably closer to an 8 for this race.


Rate myself a better swimmer and get a tri top that fits properly. My top was WAY too big once it was wet, totally opened up and created huge drag the entire swim. Good thing I put a bra under it!

This was my first T1 ever, so I decided to take my time. Walked swiftly out of the pool area but felt the urgency to run after a few steps, so I did. My transition spot was in the perfect place, right in the middle, no going out of the way at all. I sat down and dried my feet before putting my socks/shoes on. I wasn't brave enough to install my clipless pedals for this race, so just had the regular running shoes and pedals.

If I'm going to take the time to dry off at all, do my legs and lower torso, too. I dripped down into my shoes the remainder of the race.
Clipless pedals next time!

This is the hilliest ride I've ever been on in my life! I didn't check out the course ahead of time but had heard from others that it was all hills. It was everyone's first tri, so I assumed they were exaggerating and didn't worry about it. They were NOT exaggerating. Saw a few ladies walking their bikes up some of the hills. I never had to, hooray! It seemed most times when there was a good downhill stretch, it was interrupted by a right angle turn, so it was hard to take advantage of the downhills.
Toward the end, the last mile or two there were ladies coming toward me so I assumed there was a turnaround ahead. I was surprised when I suddenly ended up at the bike finish! I was a little worried that I might be burning up my legs by going hard during the bike, but I figured it's my strong discipline and I only had a 2 mile run ahead.
Overall I feel really great about my 14.5 MPH pace. I usually average around 15ish on training rides and those are much flatter than this course was.

Practice getting water bottle from cage while riding. I tend to gulp a lot of air while drinking on my bike and have trouble getting my bottle back.

Check out the course ahead of time so I can mentally prepare for any challenges.

Again, I wasn't rushing. Just wanted to make it through. I've only trained bike to run 2-3 times and it was painful. The race environment gives me the motivation I need to keep running through the pain.

Just speed it up.

This was the hardest part for me. I felt like I was going SO slow and even stopped to walk a couple of times. I had a nastly side stitch about 1/2 mile in that turned into a shoulder and chest pain during the last half mile. Walking made it feel better but it came back immediately when I started running.
Despite the feeling that I was wading through Jello and stopped a couple of times to walk (and for water) I ran a 9:20 pace, which is faster than pretty much any training run I've ever done! Very happy with my run time!

More bike to run brick practice.

Recovering from shoulder impingement so I have not been able to follow any swim training for the past 2 months.
Working on an old leg/calve injury + shin splints.


The volunteers in this race are awesome! Especially the ones at the end! Highly recommend as a 1st tri. Very supportive, positive spirit amongst all of the participants.